NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS
HIGHER NATIONALS
BTEC HIGHER NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS (RQF)
Unit Code, Number and Title M/508/0494: Innovation and Commercialisation
Semester and Academic Year Semester 1, Academic year 2020
Pham Quang Ngoc / Bui Thu Van/
Unit Assessor(s) Nguyen Hoang Hieu/ Nguyen Phuong Mai
Assignment Number and Title IC: Invention, Innovation, Diffusion (Assessment 1 of 2)
Issue Date May 6th, 2020
Submission Date 10.00 am on Friday, June 5th, 2020
IV Name Phan Thi Thuc Anh
IV Date May 4th, 2020
Student name Le Phuc Anh
NEU Student ID 10180296 Pearson ID
Plagiarism is a particular form of cheating. Plagiarism must be avoided at all costs and students who
break the rules, however innocently, may be penalised. It is your responsibility to ensure that you
understand correct referencing practices. As a university level student, you are expected to use
appropriate references throughout and keep carefully detailed notes of all your sources of materials for
material you have used in your work, including any material downloaded from the Internet. Please
consult the relevant unit lecturer or your course tutor if you need any further advice.
I certify that the assignment submission is entirely my own work and I
Student declaration fully understand the consequences of plagiarism. I understand that
making a false declaration is a form of malpractice.
Student(s) name(s) /
Date: June 5th, 2020
Signature
Le Phuc Anh
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Submission format and Instructions:
This assignment (Assessment 1 of 2) covers Learning Outcome 1&2 (LO1, LO2).
This is an individual assignment.
The submission format is in the form of a written assignment.
The assignment should have a cover page that includes the assignment code, number, tittle,
assessors’ names and student’s name and ID. Attach all the pages of assignment brief with your
report and leave them blank for official use.
Ensure that authenticity declaration has been signed.
Include a content sheet with a list of all headings and page numbers.
Plagiarism is unacceptable. Students must cite all sources and input the information by
paraphrasing, summarising or using direct quotes. A Fail Grade is given when Plagiarism is
identified in your work. There are no exceptions.
Your evidence/findings must be cited using Harvard Referencing Style. Please refer to Reference
guiding posted on Moodle.
This assignment should be written in a concise, formal business style using Arial 12 or Times
New Roman 13 font size and 1.5 spacing.
The word limit is 3,500 words (+/- 10%). If you exceed the word limit (excluding references and
administrative sections) your grade will be penalised.
You MUST complete and submit a hardcopy and softcopy of your work on the due dates stated
on Assignment brief. All late work is not allowed to submit. This rule is not waived under any
circumstances. The softcopy must be submitted to Turn-it-in via Moodle; the hard copy to
Assignment Box, Room 404A, D2 building.
Read ALL Instructions on this Page and review the Pass, Merit and Distinction criteria carefully.
To pass the assignment, you must achieve ALL the Pass Criteria outlined in the marking sheet.
To achieve a Merit, you must achieve ALL the Merit criteria (and therefore the Pass criteria). To
achieve a Distinction, you must achieve ALL the Distinction criteria (and therefore the Pass and
Merit criteria).
Unit Learning Outcomes:
LO1: Explain the context for innovation and determine the difference between invention and innovation
LO2: Explain the different types of innovation
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Assessment Brief and Guidance:
A brief history of the digital camera
Figure 1 The first prototype digital camera, developed by Kodak's Steven Sasson
From theoretical beginnings as a space-travel navigation aid, the digital camera developed from
tapeless analogue cameras through sky-charting behemoths to consumer concepts and beyond. To
explore that long history, we've charted the milestones, the groundbreakers -- and the downright
strange. Take a look to see where your camera came from, as we visit Grandad Kodak, Uncle Apple
and a whole family tree of camera cousins.
The beginnings
The history of the digital camera began with Eugene F. Lally of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. When he
wasn't coming up with ways to create artificial gravity he was thinking about how to use a mosaic photo
sensor to capture digital images. His 1961 idea was to take pictures of the planets and stars while
travelling through space, in order to help establish the astronauts' position. Unfortunately, as with Texas
Instrument employee Willis Adcock's filmless camera (US patent 4,057,830) in 1972, the technology
had yet to catch up with the concept.
The camera generally recognised as the first digital still snapper was a prototype (US patent 4,131,919)
developed by Eastman Kodak engineer Steven Sasson in 1975. He cobbled together some Motorola
parts with a Kodak movie-camera lens and some newly invented Fairchild CCD electronic sensors.
The resulting camera, pictured above on its first trip to Europe recently, was the size of a large toaster
and weighed nearly 4kg. Black-and-white images were captured on a digital cassette tape, and viewing
them required Sasson and his colleagues to also develop a special screen.
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The resolution was a revolutionary .01 megapixels and it took 23 seconds to record the first digital
photograph. Talk about shutter lag.
Some believe that Kodak missed a trick by not developing this technological breakthrough, with film
remaining their bread and butter. The next step in the process would come from elsewhere.
Figure 2 SONY’s Magnetic Video Camera
The end of film?
The first commercial CCD camera was developed by Fairchild in 1976. The MV-101 was used to
inspect Procter & Gamble products. The following year Konica introduced the C35-AF, the world's first
compact point-and-shoot autofocus camera. But the filmless age was kickstarted on 25 August 1981,
when Sony demonstrated the first camera to bear the name Mavica (Magnetic Video Camera).
Not strictly a digital camera, the Mavica was actually an analogue television camera. It stored pictures
on two-inch floppy disks called Mavipaks that could hold up to fifty colour photos for playback on a
television or monitor. CCD size was 570x490 pixels on a 10x12mm chip. The light sensitivity of the
sensor was ISO 200 and the shutter speed was fixed at 1/60 second. It ran off AA batteries.
Figure 3 CANON’s RC-250 Xapshot
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The analogue age
Analogue cameras may have been the start of the digital age, in that they recorded images on to
electronic media, but they never really took off due to poor image quality and prohibitive cost. They
were mainly used by newspapers to cover events such as the 1984 Olympics, the Tiananmen Square
protests of 1989 and the Gulf War in 1991. Canon launched the first analogue camera to go on sale,
the RC-701, in 1986, and followed it with the RC-250 Xapshot, the first consumer analogue camera, in
1988.
The Xapshot was called the Ion in Europe, and the Q-PIC in Japan. It cost $499 in the US, but
consumers had to splash out a further $999 on a battery, computer interface card with software, and
floppy disks. Think about that the next time you get annoyed when you have to pay extra for memory
cards.
Figure 4 Photo of auroras taken by All-Sky camera
The coming of true digital
The first true digital camera that actually worked was built in 1981. The University of Calgary Canada
ASI Science Team built the Fairchild All-Sky camera to photograph auroras, an example of which is
shown on the right of our picture.
The All-Sky Camera utilised more of those 100x100-pixel Fairchild CCDs, which had been around since
1973. What made the All-Sky Camera truly digital was that it recorded digital data rather than analogue.
In October 1981 the digital revolution rolled on with the release of the world's first consumer compact
disk player, the Sony CDP-101.
Colani's concepts: the future of cameras?
In 1983, Canon commissioned outspoken designer Luigi Colani to envision the future of camera design.
The chap who believed that "an egg represents the highest form of packaging since the dawn of time"
drew on his "no straight lines in the universe" philosophy to create the 5 Systems. These designs
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included (top left to right) the Hy-Pro, an SLR design with an LCD viewfinder, a novice camera named
(rather politically incorrectly) the Lady, the Super C. Bio with power zoom and built-in flash, and the
underwater Frog.
Figure 5 HOMIC (Horizontal Memorychip Integral storobo Camera)
Figure 5 shows the HOMIC (Horizontal Memorychip Integral storobo Camera). This was a Gerry
Anderson-esque concept for a still video camera recording to solid-state memory. Unusually, the lens
and viewfinder were on the same axis, while the flash fired through the objective lens.
The HOMIC was exhibited at the 1984 Photokina, but was never marketed.
Figure 6 The 1990 Dycam Model 1
Digital hits the shops
The first true digital handheld camera was the Fuji DS-1P, developed in 1988 but never sold. It
recorded images as computerised files. These were saved on a 16MB SRAM internal memory card,
which was jointly developed with Toshiba. That same year, Digital Darkroom became the first image-
manipulation program for the Macintosh computer.
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Also in 1988, the first JPEG and MPEG standards were set.
The first digital camera to actually go on sale was the 1990 Dycam Model 1 (pictured). A grey version
was marketed as the Logitech Fotoman. It used a CCD image sensor, stored pictures digitally, and
connected directly to a PC for download.
Figure 7 Hasselblad DB 4000
Digital comes to SLR
Digital backs were attached to film cameras in some SLR systems. An example of this is the
Hasselblad DB 4000 with a Leaf back (figure 7), which arrived in 1991. It packed a 2,048x2,048-pixel
CCD and 8-bit storage.
Adobe PhotoShop 1.0 hit the shops in 1990.
Figure 8 The Kodak DCS 200
Digital goes online!
Mosaic, the first web browser that let users view photographs over the Web, was released by the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications in 1992.
That year also saw the the Kodak DCS 200 (pictured) debut with a built-in hard drive. It was based on
the Nikon N8008s and came in five combinations of black and white or colour, with and without hard
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drive. Resolution was 1.54 million pixels, roughly four times the resolution of still-video cameras.
Figure 9 The QuickTake 200
Apple gets in on the action: the QuickTake
You'd have to live under a rock to not know that Apple makes phones these days, but did you know it
also had a crack at the digital camera market? The Apple QuickTake 100 (figure 9 top), launched in
1994, was actually manufactured by Kodak, and was the the first colour digital camera for under
$1,000. It packed a 640x480-pixel CCD and could stash up to eight 640x480 images in the internal
memory.
The QuickTake 200 (figure 9, pictured below) followed later, and was built by Fujifilm.
Figure 10 The OLYMPUS’s Deltis VC-1100 (left) and KODAK’s DC-25 (right)
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Connected cameras and CompactFlash
The first 'photo quality' desktop inkjet printer arrived in 1994. The Epson MJ-700V2C (pictured left)
managed 720x720 dots per inch.
Later that year, the Olympus Deltis VC-1100 (figure 10, pictured left) became the world's first digital
camera with built-in transmission capabilities. With a modem connected, photos could be transmitted
over phone lines -- even mobiles -- although it took about six minutes to transmit high-quality images.
Image resolution was 768x576 pixels, the shutter speed could be set between 1/8 and 1/1000 second,
and it included a colour LCD viewfinder.
SmartMedia card and CompactFlash cards also arrived that year. The first camera to use
CompactFlash was the Kodak DC-25 (figure 10, pictured right) in 1996.
Figure 11 The CASIO’s QV-10
The shape of things to come
The shape of compact digital cameras began to emerge in Casio QV-10 in 1995, which was the first
with an LCD screen on the back. The screen measured 46mm (1.8 inches) from corner to corner.
It was also the first consumer digital camera with a pivoting lens. Photos were captured by a 1/5-inch
460x280-pixel CCD and stored to a semiconductor memory, which held up to 96 colour still images.
Other now-familiar features included macro positioning, automatic exposure, auto-playback of images
and a self timer. It cost $1,000.
Figure 12 The Ricoh RDC-1
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In 1995, the first digital camera to shoot both still photos and movie footage with sound appeared. The
Ricoh RDC-1 included a removable 64mm (2.5-inch) colour LCD screen. The CCD packed a 768x480-
pixel resolution, while the zoom clocked in at 3x and f/2.8. More than a decade later and those are still
the baseline specs for compacts (apart from the resolution, of course).
The RDC-1 would have set you back a hefty $1,500.
Figure 13 The CANON’s PowerShot 600
Webcams and compacts
In 1995, Logitech debuted the VideoMan, its first webcam, and the first colour digital video camera for
the personal computer.
The now-familiar compact shape continued to emerge with the Canon PowerShot 600 (pictured) in
1996. It had a 1/3-inch, 832x608-pixel CCD, built-in flash, auto white balance and an optical viewfinder
as well as an LCD display. It was the first consumer digital camera able to write images to a hard disk
drive, and could store up to 176MB. It cost $949.
Figure 14 The PENTAX’s EI-C90
The digital age!
And there we have it. Although compacts were appearing in strange shapes, such as the Pentax EI-
C90, which split into two sections, the basic form factor was laid down for today's multi-megapixel
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monsters -- roughly the same size as the tape cassette Steve Sasson used to record one grainy image
(pictured).
Camera phones and CMOS sensors appeared in 1997, while megapixel counts are constantly climbing.
The Hasselblad H3D II The Hasselblad H3D II digital SLR is a 39-megapixel behemoth (figure 15).
In order to process that frankly ridiculous 5,412x7,212-pixel resolution, the H3D II packs a 48x36mm
image sensor. To keep that leviathan of a sensor cool, Hasselblad has jammed in a physical heatsink,
which dissipates the heat generated to the entire camera body.
There's also a whopping 76mm (3-inch) screen for previewing images, and Hasselblad claims that
handling is better than on the original H3D, as the controls have been moved to within thumb reach.
The H3D II shoots raw footage -- imagine the size of those files! -- and also boasts a GPS receiver for
geotagging your pictures. This embeds location information in the image file so that Google Earth,
which the camera links directly to, or sites such as Flickr, can show where the image was taken on a
map.
Of course, 39 megapixels is pretty ludicrous, and so is the £18,500 price tag. Hasselblad has taken this
into account by offering two lesser versions of the H3D II, available to us lesser mortals that don't need
to shoot photos the size of billboards. Well, kind of: they offer 22- and 31-megapixel sensors. We may
need to save up.
How far we've come.
Figure 15 The HASSELBLAD’s H3D II
Source:
1. Richard Trenholm (2007), Photos: The history of the digital camera,
https://www.cnet.com/news/photos-the-history-of-the-digital-camera/
2. Richard Trenholm (2007), Hasselblad H3D II: Megapixel madness,
https://www.cnet.com/news/hasselblad-h3d-ii-megapixel-madness/
------End of the scenario------
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1: The history of technological change in camera industry is bound with initial radical breakthroughs
(inventions with patents) followed by incremental improvements (innovations). Highlight the
inventions and innovations that bring the new product in this industry. Determine the difference
between (1) inventions of technological breakthroughs and (2) major innovations and (3)
minor/incremental innovations.
2: Analyse the different sources of innovations related to the first prototype digital camera, developed
by Kodak's Steven Sasson:
Describe the different functional sources of the innovations related to these products made by
Kodak, using theory of von Hippel (1988).
Evaluate how these sources of innovation help these firms to generate new-product
innovations.
3: Using the models of demand pull and technological push to explain the interaction of technology
and business performance of the firms in making (1) SONY’s Magnetic Video Camera, (2) CANON’s
RC-250 Xapshot, (3) HOMIC (Horizontal Memorychip Integral storobo Camera, (4) Hasselblad DB
4000 and (5) The Kodak DCS 200. Did these innovative firms get the ideas for innovations from the
market or it were the firms’ engineers who recognizes that a specific piece of new technological
knowledge resulted in the firms’ new products?
4: Analyse the case of first prototype digital camera, developed by Kodak's Steven Sasson:
Explain how Kodak’s organisational vision, leadership, culture shaped the company
innovations and commercialisations toward digital camera.
Why Kodak missed a trick by not developing this technological breakthrough?
5: Analyze the competition among various digital cameras (product innovation) in their product-line:
Build the S-curve for the evolution of digital camera and film camera.
How was the performance of digital camera improved over time?
When film cameras were, at first, challenged by the first commercial filmless digital camera
(SONY’s MAVICA), describe the rival technology (technology of MAVICA) at time T1 in the S-
curve? How was the performance of the MAVICA by the time T1 when it, at first, entered the
market?
HOMIC (Horizontal Memorychip Integral storobo Camera) was introduced in 1984 Photokina.
Explain the 4Ps of innovation of CANON and apply the innovation funnel to understand how it
shapes innovative ideas of CANON (Colani’s concept). Why was HOMIC was never
marketed?
6: What matters for the success of LEICA digital cameras today (see
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/best-leica-camera )? What did LEICA do to take
the position of market leader and to maintain their advantage? Explain the 4Ps of innovation of
LEICA. Evaluate the role of frugal innovation in an organisational context of LEICA.
Note: student could enrich evident and data for their analysis by searching on the internet, do
remember to cite the source of information.
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According to Glossary of Command Verb by Pearson
1. Describe: Give an account, including all the relevant characteristics, qualities and events.
2. Analyse: Present the outcome of methodical and detailed examination either:
breaking down a theme, topic or situation in order to interpret and study the interrelationships between
the parts and/or
of information or data to interpret and study key trends and interrelationships.
3. Critically analyse: Separate information into components and identify characteristics with depth to the
justification.
4. Evaluate: work draws on varied information, themes or concepts to consider aspects, such as:
strengths or weaknesses
advantages or disadvantages
alternative actions
relevance or significance.
Students’ inquiries should lead to a supported judgement showing relationship to its context. This will often
be in a conclusion.
5. Critically evaluate: Make a judgement taking into account different factors and using available
knowledge/experience/evidence where the judgement is supported in depth.
Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria
Learning Achieved Achieved Achieved
Pass (ticked) Merit (ticked) Distinction (ticked)
Outcome
P1 Explain
innovation and
determine its M1 Analyse
importance to different
LO1 Explain
organisations in sources of
the context
comparison with innovation,
for innovation
invention. and how
and
organisations
determine the P2 Explain how
can foster
difference organisational
and develop
between vision, leadership,
an
invention and culture and
environment LO1 & 2 D1
innovation teamwork can
and culture of Critically
shape innovation
innovation. analyse how
and
innovation is
commercialisation
developed,
P3 Explain the embedded
4Ps of innovation M2 Analyse and
and explain the and apply the measured in
use of the innovation an
innovation funnel funnel in an organisational
to examine and organisational context.
LO2 shape innovative context.
Explain the ideas.
different
P4 Explain
types of M3 Appraise
developments in
innovation the role of
frugal innovation
frugal
and provide
innovation in
examples of how
an
it is used in an
organisational
organisational
context.
context.
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Formative Feedback: Assessor to Student (please specific)
Action Plan
Summative Feedback: Assessor to Student (please specific)
Choose One The Student Is Awarded:
(*) Referral PASS Grade MERIT Grade DISTINCTION Grade
Name Of Assessor: Date Of Assessment:
Re-submission Feedback:
Choose One The Student Is Awarded A :
Referral PASS Grade
(*)
Name Of Assessor: Date Of Assessment:
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Feedback: Student to Assessor
Signature & Date:
* Please note that grades are provisional. They are only confirmed once internal and external verifiers
have taken place, and the final decisions have been agreed at the assessment board.
* This grade only reflects the result of this assignment, not for the whole Unit
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